(By Sergei Mironov, chairman and State Duma faction leader of A
Just Russia. Rossiiskaya gazeta, Dec. 13, 2016, p. 14.
Condensed text:) Recently, public debate has increasingly focused
on the question of whether Russia needs a state ideology. The
reasons for this are quite clear. After all, a lot of the
challenges and threats currently facing our country are not only
geopolitical, military-strategic and financial-economic in nature -
they also have a strong ideological component. Life is forcing us
to find an adequate response to these sorts of challenges instead
of hiding from them.

When Russia’s foes unleash virulent anti-Russian campaigns or
propaganda wars against it, they are trying not only to weaken our
foreign policy positions, but also to create confusion in the minds
of Russians, weakening the people’s spirit and unity. When liars
shamelessly rewrite the history of World War II, denigrating and
distorting the role our country played in achieving the Great
Victory over fascism, that is yet another example of ideological
provocation and sabotage.. ..

This raises the question of whether it is justified for Art. 13
of the Russian Constitution to state: "No ideology may be
established as a state ideology or an obligatory ideology." I
suppose I agree on the obligatory part - an obligatory [ideology]
has no place in a democratic society. Free citizens have the right
to their own opinion on any matter. But why was it decided to make
the state completely "ideologically sterile," especially given that
the war over ideas and values in the world is getting increasingly
fierce? This warrants some serious thought. In a sense, we are
stripping ourselves of all defenses in the face of foreign and
fairly aggressive ideological influences.

It is easy to explain why this categorical passage was included
in the Constitution back in the day. After all, that was a time
when society had just freed ...

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